


When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano

by NEStar



Series: Reunion Songbook [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Spycraft, old sci fi books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 13:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NEStar/pseuds/NEStar
Summary: 1949 - It's starts off like any other cold contact, a paper slipped to her with the message, "I'm looking to come in from the cold".





	When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano

It was one of those sudden surprise spring days, the ones that give you hope that winter will really end, and Peggy Carter had decided to enjoy it by walking home. She was about halfway home when the hair on the back of her neck stood up - someone was watching her.

Two blocks later she stopped at the corner waiting for traffic to change and that's when a man spoke up from behind her, “I think you dropped this, ma'am”. 

A handkerchief was pressed into her hand and she was about to protest that it wasn't hers when she felt the crinkle of paper inside of it. The light changed and she moved forward with the crowd. Spotting a newsstand, she moved towards it and bought a pack of cigarettes.

Peggy pulled the note out and quickly read its message, “I’m looking to come in from the cold. Markle Brothers Books, H.G. Wells”. She pulled a cigarette out of the pack, lit it, and used the match to catch the note on fire as well. She continued down the busy sidewalk for half a block before doubling back towards her new destination. 

The bell over the door of the book shop jingled politely as Peggy stepped inside. It was a lovely space, large enough to have a private conversation but small enough to easily keep tabs on the other patrons.

Peggy looked through a few of the books set out on a sale table before drifting toward the back shelf. In the far corner, with a view of both the front entrance and the door to the stockroom, stood a man pursuing a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. He was tall, broad shouldered, with a hat that covered his eyes.

“Have you ever read it?,” he asked when she got close, his head still bent over the book.

“No,” Peggy answered. “My mother thought it unlady like.”

“I find myself drawn to it,” the man replied. “The idea that you can move forward and back in time. But if you really want a good story then you should try The Man Who Awoke. It’s about a fella who goes into suspended animation and wakes up after 5,000 years.”

Peggy turned slightly away and took down a book by Georgette Heyer. “I can’t say that either of those sound very appealing.” 

The man let out a soft laugh that tugged at something in Peggy’s chest, “Then maybe I should write my own. Mash the two works together, but add in a dash of patriotism to hook the audience. Maybe a story about a man who wants to be a soldier so badly he signs up for a government experiment.”

Peggy froze in place, every ounce of her training keeping her from whipping around and punching this stranger square in the mouth.  
“He becomes a super soldier but on one of his missions things go sideways and he ends up crashing in the north pole - this is where the suspended animation comes in.” The man set his book down, “He doesn’t die. Instead, he sleeps for seventy years.”

Peggy’s heart is racing, she can hear how loud her breathing has become - this stranger must be able to hear it too. She wants to run away. To punch him, shut him up, because how dare he, then to run back to her house and cry.

“He wakes up and is told there’s a new war, a new enemy. So he fights, and fights, and fights. After saving the country and the world and even the universe, he decides that he can’t do it anymore. So he uses a machine from the future - a time machine.”

He moves closer and brushes the back of his hand against hers. “Because there was someone he left behind, a love he could never get over.”

Peggy turns back and looks up into his face: his strong jaw, his high cheekbones, his bright blue eyes all there just as she remembers.

“Only, I don’t know how it ends. If the woman will forgive him and take him back or if --” His words are cut off by Peggy throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his.


End file.
